Wine Garden of England Booklet 2024 | Page 38

DOMAINE EVREMOND

OUR JOURNEY SO FAR Domaine Evremond is first and foremost the realisation of a dream between friends , Pierre- Emmanuel Taittinger and Patrick McGrath . Our philosophy is rooted in friendship and family , with a desire and commitment to produce the very best English Sparkling Wine we can , while ultimately respecting the land and time .
MAKING HISTORY We launched Domaine Evremond in December 2015 , making English Sparkling Wine history . Following 18 months of searching for the right land , we were able to share our exciting news that Champagne Taittinger and their British friends Hatch Mansfield had found and bought 69 hectares of farmland in Kent to plant a vineyard . Taittinger were not only the first Champagne House to plant vines on English soil , but the first from any other wine region in the world .
The combined vision between Champagne Taittinger and Hatch Mansfield is to forge a lasting collaboration founded in friendship and expertise , to create one of the best sparkling wines in the world .
WHY KENT ? For us , it was only natural that we should concentrate our land search in Kent - both The Garden of England and the Wine Garden of England ! Kent is one of the warmest and driest counties in England and we were lucky to find farmland close to the picturesque village of Chilham . With the perfect combination of freedraining chalk soils , very similar to the terroir in Champagne , we found Stone Stile Farm which was originally owned by the Gaskain family . This became the home of Domaine Evremond .
DIGGING EVREMOND Following the announcement , the hard work began preparing the land for our first plantings . On 3 May 2017 , memorable as a typically British rainy , cold unseasonal May day , ‘ Digging Evremond ’ celebrated our official planting and 20 hectares of Chardonnay , Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier were planted over one week .
Since then , the land and vines at Domaine Evremond have been carefully managed through a committed Franco-Anglo team effort . Christelle Rinville , Taittinger ’ s Vineyard Director is a frequent visitor to the vineyard , working alongside local farmer Mark Gaskain , who has been with us from the very beginning . Together , they ensure we make the best of what we have , sharing their personal expertise of land and vine growing .
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